Lionel de Rothschild

Lionel de Rothschild (22 November 1808-3 July 1879) was a Liberal Party MP from 1847 to 1868 and from 1869 to 1874.

Biography
Lionel de Rothschild was born in London, England in 1808 to a prominent Jewish family, and he worked for his father's Europe-wide banking firm and became a Freiherr (baron) of the Austrian Empire. He was responsible for raising large sums of money for the government during the Crimean War, and he also raised money for the victims of the Great Irish Famine. Later, he would refuse a loan to Russia after it suppressed Polish uprisings, and he also gave a loan to the British government to pay for the Suez Canal project.

In 1847, he was elected to the House of Commons as a Liberal Party MP for the City of London, but he was not allowed to sit in the chamber due to his Jewish faith; at the time, MPs were required to swear an oath "upon the true faith of a Christian", and this law would not be abolished until 1858, with Rothschild, Benjamin Disraeli, and other liberals supporting its abolition. From 1869 to 1874, he once again served in the House, and he died in 1879.